The snap reaction to Marian Gaborik's new, seven-year contract with the Kings: That's way too long.

Gaborik's age — 32 — seemed reason enough to dislike the deal, regardless of the fact that it pays him a below-market $4.875 million average per year.

In fact, Gaborik's age makes the deal better. It's always risky to pay for scorers on the wrong side of 30, and it certainly feels as though Gaborik has been around forever, but he's three years short of the magic number. When a player 35 or older signs a contract, it's guaranteed to count against the cap whether the player sticks around, retires or takes a buyout.

As it stands, Gaborik can play a few more years, then, should he need to, call it quits with no harm to the Kings. If that's the way things play out, given how good Gaborik was after LA acquired him, the Kings would win. Big.

The main reason for that: Gaborik, still good enough on his own, looked like a nearly perfect fit alongside Anze Kopitar from the jump.

Let's forget about points for a minute. When Kopitar was away from Gaborik, LA controlled 61.7 percent of all five-on-five shots. That's great. When Kopitar played with Gaborik, that number spiked to 65.7, which is better than great. Like Ryan Lambert noted, Kopitar was on the ice for more goals-against when he played with Gaborik, but the simultaneous increase in production is impossible to ignore.

Kopitar and Justin Williams did a lot right together. That said, they struggled to turn their possession domination into goals. So, while the opposition scored a little more frequently against Gaborik-Kopitar-Williams, the inverse was true, too; without Gaborik, Kopitar was on the ice for about 0.8 Kings goals per 20 minutes of five-on-five play. Add Gaborik to the mix, and that doubled, to 1.64. That's a lot.

Based strictly on totals, rather than rates, the results are there, too; Gaborik had 22 points in 26 postseason games, including an NHL-leading 15 goals. Kopitar was first in overall scoring, with 26 points. Also, the Kings clinched the Stanley Cup in a game that Gaborik tied in the third period. So there's that.

As something of an aside, coach Darryl Sutter and Dean Lombardi both said that Gaborik's offense-first reputation wasn't wholly deserved. Lombardi said during the on-ice celebration at Staples Center that Gaborik's ability to make defensive reads is "off the charts," and Sutter never hesitated to point out that defense is about keeping the puck away from your opponent. Gaborik is good at that.

"The one thing our scouts did was before the deadline, everyone knew we were looking for offense and the digging they did, they found out about him as a person," Lombardi said. "Because we knew if he got into our room and he was a good person, there's a good chance he was going to acclimate given the way those guys were in the room. It started with him. The marks he got as a person and a teammate were first class."

This isn't Minnesota, where Jacques Lemaire necessarily coached a defense-first-and-always team. This isn't New York, where John Tortorella went down the shot-blocking rabbit hole. This isn't Columbus, where Gaborik seemed injured more often than not. This is a system that fits his skills, with a coach who knows how to use him and a center who makes him better — and vice versa.

So, maybe Gaborik's deal is a little fuzzy by the end. Or maybe he makes things easy and calls it quits at, say, 36. Either way, based on how he and Kopitar seem to fit, the next few years should be worth it.